In logic, counterinduction is a measure that helps to call something into question by developing something against which it can be compared.
Paul Feyerabend
Paul Karl Feyerabend (; January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades (195 ...
argued for counterinduction as a way to test unchallenged scientific theories; unchallenged simply because there are no structures within the scientific paradigm to challenge itself (See Crotty, 1998 p. 39). For instance, Feyerabend is quoted as saying the following:
"Therefore, the first step in our criticism of customary concepts and customary reactions is to step outside the circle and either to invent a new conceptual system, for example, a new theory, that clashes with the most carefully established observational results and confounds the most plausible theoretical principles, or to import such a system from the outside science, from religion, from mythology, from the ideas of incompetents, or the ramblings of madmen." (Feyerabend, 1993, pp. 52-3)
This gets into the pluralistic methodology that Feyerabend espouses that will help support counterinductive methods.
Paul Feyerabend
Paul Karl Feyerabend (; January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades (195 ...
's
anarchist theory popularized the notion of counterinduction.
Most of the time when counterinduction is mentioned, it is not presented as a valid rule. Instead, it is given as a
refutation
In argumentation, an objection is a reason arguing against a premise, argument, or conclusion. Definitions of objection vary in whether an objection is always an argument (or counterargument) or may include other moves such as questioning.
An ...
of
Max Black
Max Black (24 February 1909 – 27 August 1988) was an Azerbaijani-born British-American philosopher who was a leading figure in analytic philosophy in the years after World War II. He made contributions to the philosophy of language, the philo ...
's proposed
inductive justification of induction, since the counterinductive justification of counterinduction is formally identical to the inductive justification of induction.
The Problem of Induction
For further information, see Problem of induction.
See also
* A priori and a posteriori
("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ...
* Abductive reasoning
* Bayesian inference
* Hasty generalization
A faulty generalization is an informal fallacy wherein a conclusion is drawn about all or many instances of a phenomenon on the basis of one or a few instances of that phenomenon. It is similar to a proof by example in mathematics. It is an examp ...
* Justified true belief
Definitions of knowledge try to determine the essential features of knowledge. Closely related terms are conception of knowledge, theory of knowledge, and analysis of knowledge. Some general features of knowledge are widely accepted among philoso ...
* Law of large numbers
* Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference
Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference is a mathematical proof that if a universe is generated by an algorithm, then observations of that universe, encoded as a dataset, are best predicted by the smallest executable archive of that dataset. T ...
References
Inductive fallacies
{{logic-stub